Samuel Lippincott, Town Supervisor of Pelham in 1859, 1860, and 1861

Archive of the Historic Pelham Web Site.
Home Page of the Historic Pelham Blog.
Order a Copy of "Thomas Pell and the Legend of the Pell Treaty Oak."

Samuel Lippincott (also known as Samuel Lippencott) served as town supervisor of the Town of Pelham in 1859, 1860, and 1861.  Little is known about him.  Today's posting to the Historic Pelham Blog is an effort to document a little about Lippincott's life.  

Lippincott was born on November 27, 1827 in Rahway, New Jersey, according to his obituary (and consistent with the 1850 and 1860 United States Censuses).  By the age of 23, Lippincott was married to an eighteen-year-old woman named Mary L. who was born in New York in about 1832.  The couple lived on City Island in the Town of Pelham near storekeeper Benjamin Horton and oysterman Joseph B. Horton, according to the 1850 United States census.   

Samuel Lippincott is described as a "House Carpenter" in the 1850 census and as a "Builder" in the 1860 census.  The term "House Carpenter" was a term of art from at least the late eighteenth century until the mid-nineteenth century.  It denoted a master builder who was the equivalent of an architect, engineer, and carpenter combined. 

As a house carpenter and builder, Samuel Lippincott benefited from the fact that the population of the Town of Pelham almost doubled between 1850 and 1860 from 577 people to 1,025 people, most of whom lived on City Island.  Indeed, the 1860 U.S. census indicates that Lippincott was comparatively affluent with real estate valued at $4,500 and personal property valued at $1,000.  

By 1860, according to the federal census, Samuel and Mary Lippincott had five children, all of whom lived with them:  Mary E. (born abt. 1850), Stephen H. (born abt. 1854), Robert B. (born abt. 1856), Helen M. (born abt. 1857), and Belle Louisa (born abt. 1859; died 1872).  According to the 1860 U.S. Census, the couple had a number of others living in their household including:  Catharine Crane (a 22-year-old Irish "Domestic"), Mary Johnson (a 25-year-old Irish "Cook"), and Henry A. Mason (a 30-year-old "Pilot" born in New York) and his wife Cornelia H. (a 24-year-old native New Yorker).

Genealogical research reveals that Samuel and Mary Lippincott had at least two other children:  Frank (born 1861; died 1883); and Edith C. (born 1868; died 1869).  Mary L. Lippincott died on July 25, 1869.

Samuel Lippincott was described in a news article published in 1859 as an "'American' Democrat."  See Our Town Elections . . . PELHAM, Eastern State Journal [White Plains, NY], Apr. 1, 1859, p. 2, col. 3.  In 1859, Lippincott was first elected to the Town Supervisor position and was reelected to the position in each of the following two annual elections.  When he first began service as the Supervisor in 1859, he served with the following other town officials:

Town Clerk:  Benjamin Hegeman
Town Assessor:  George W. Horton, Sr.
Commissioner of Highways:  William S. McClellan
Justice of the Peace:  George W. Horton, Sr.
Justice of the Peace:  Benjamin Hegeman
Justice of the Peace:  James A. Grenzebach
Constable:  Alexander Rolle
Tax Collector:  Alexander Rolle
Overseer of the Poor:  Stephen D. Horton
Overseer of the Poor:  John L. Cooper
Inspector of Elections:  Alexander Jackson
Inspector of Elections:  John L. Roscoe

Source:  Id.  

The audited Town accounts for 1859, Lippincott's first year as Town Supervisor, provide an excellent example of the nature and cost of the town services Lippincott oversaw during the first year of his three-year tenure as supervisor.  The town spent $338.63 paying town officials for their services and expenses that year, of which Supervisor Lippincott received $10.75.  In addition, the town spent $1,670.01 on town services in 1859.  Finally, the town collected a total of $3,239.67 in State, School, and County taxes during the same year.  Immediately below is an abstract of the town's accounts published in a local newspaper at the time. 

"PELHAM.

Abstract of Accounts audited by the Board of Town

Auditors of the town of Pelham, at their Annual

Session, Nov. 10, 1859.

		Claimed.	Allowed.
Samuel Lippencott, supervisor	………………	$10.75	$10.75
George W. Horton, assessor	………………	50.00	50.00
George W. Horton, inspector of election	………………	9.00	9.00
George W. Horton, supervisor in 1858	………………	19.75	19.75
Benjamin Hegeman, justice	………………	12.75	12.75
Benjamin Hegeman, town clerk	………………	36.95	36.95
William S. McClellan, commissioner of highways	………………	49.75	49.75
William S. McClellan, justice	………………	20.25	20.25
William S. McClellan, overseer of the poor	………………	27.00	27.00
Joseph B. Horton, assessor	………………	27.72	27.72
Orrin Baxter, clerk of election	………………	9.00	9.00
William S. McClellan, inspector of election, and for disbursements	………………	15.75	15.75
John L. Roscoe, inspector of election	………………	9.20	9.20
Alexander Rolfe, constable	………………	5.25	5.25
William S. McClellan, assessor	………………	48.25	48.25
Moses T. Strong, constable	………………	7.26	7.26
		$338.63	$338.63



I certify that the above is a true Abstract of all the Accounts audited at the last session of the Board of Town Auditors of the town of Pelham.  --  Dated November 12, 1859.
SAMUEL LIPPENCOTT, Supervisor.

Audited by the Board of Supervisors:
Harvey Kidd, referee	………………		$3.00

APPROPRIATIONS.



For temporary relief of the poor	………………		100.00
For the support of roads and bridges	………………		650.00
To pay damages in laying out new road on City Island	………………		194.56
To work and grade said new road	………………		150.00
To pay for a new ballot-box	………………		5.00
To pay for painting town hall	………………		30.00
To pay Valentine G. Hall, for error in assessment	………………		409.24
Rejected tax of 1856	………………	119.82
Interest on same, 7 per cent	………………	8.39	128.21
			$1,670.01
Audited Town bills	………………		338.63
Total	………………		$2,008.64
State tax	………………		$1,430.60
School tax	………………		613.12
County tax	………………		1,195.95
			$3,239.67"

Source:  PELHAM.  Abstract of Accounts audited by the Board of Town Auditors of the town of Pelham, at their Annual Session, Nov. 10, 1859, Eastern State Journal, [White Plains, NY] Dec. 23, 1859, p. 2, col. 1. 

Samuel Lippincott was serving as Pelham Town Supervisor and, thus, a member of the Board of Supervisors of Westchester County at the time the Civil War began.  He attended a special meeting of the Board of Supervisors of Westchester County on May 1, 1861, although it appears that he arrived late.  In that meeting, the Board considered whether to implement a county tax on the citizens of Westchester County to support the Federal war efforts against the Rebel states.  The Board concluded that it was not authorized under the law to implement such a tax and, thus, resolved to pledge the faith of the board for the "adoption of such measures by this Board, at its next session, as shall be necessary for the proper support of the families of her patriotic sons who have or may volunteer their services for the defence of our common country." See Board of Supervisors, WESTCHESTER COUNTY -- Special Meeting, May 1, 1861, Eastern State Journal, May 3, 1861, p. 2, cols. 4-6. 

After serving as Pelham Town Supervisor, Samuel and Mary appear to have moved their family to Oswego, Oswego County, New York where Mary died on July 25, 1869.  She is buried in Riverside Cemetery, Plot 59N, in Oswego.  The 1870 U.S. Census describes Samuel Lippincott as a "lumber merchant" which may have been a contributing factor for his move to Oswego, New York. 

Within a relatively short time after Mary Lippincott's death, Samuel Lippincott seems to have remarried to a woman named Lucinda (born 1838 in New York; died 1899).  (Great care must be taken in connection with the conclusion that Samuel and Mary moved to Oswego and that Samuel remarried to Lucinda after Mary's death.  There were a number of men named Samuel Lippincott of about the same age who lived in the region at the time.  Nevertheless, it appears that this was the same man to some family researchers.)

By about 1873, Samuel Lippincott and his wife, Lucinda, moved their family again and Samuel changed careers.  The couple moved to Brooklyn, New York where Samuel Lippincott became a baker in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area.  He remained in the baking business in Brooklyn for the next twenty seven years.  During the last five years of his life, Lippincott suffered from diabetes and asthma.  He lost his wife to death in 1899.  He then retired from his baking business shortly before his 0wn death in 1900.

Family researchers believe that the Samuel Lippincott who served as Town Supervisor of Pelham, New York in 1859, 1860, and 1861 died on March 29, 1900 in his home located at 740 Herkimer Street, Brooklyn, Kings County, New York.  He is buried in Riverside Cemetery, Plot 59N, Oswego, Oswego County, New York.  His brief obituary read as follows:

"Samuel Lippencott.

Samuel Lippencott died at his home, 740 Herkimer street, this morning of diabetes and asthma, after an illness of five years.  He had been in the baking business for twenty-seven years in the Stuyvesant section and had just retired from active life.  He was born in Rahway, N. J., November 27, 1827.  He was a Democrat of the old fashioned type.  He leaves three sons and two daughters.  The funeral will be at his late home and the burial in Oswego."

Source:  Samuel Lippencott, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Mar. 29, 1900, p. 3, col. 6. 

Map of Town of Pelham with Inset of City
Island, 1868. Source: Beers, F.W., Atlas
of New York and Vicinity, p. 35 (NY, NY:
Beers, Ellis & Soule, 1868).  NOTE:  Click
Image to Enlarge.

Archive of the Historic Pelham Web Site.

Home Page of the Historic Pelham Blog.

Order a Copy of "Thomas Pell and the Legend of the Pell Treaty Oak."